Donnas are making their music heard

News-Times, The (Danbury, CT)

Published 7:00 pm, Wednesday, March 30, 2005

Walk into the Mandee junior clothing store in Danbury's North Street Shopping Center and you'll see posters everywhere offering a chance to meet The Donnas when the California-based rock band plays in New York City.

Walk into any decent record store and you'll see copies of the band's Atlantic Records albums - 2004's "Gold Medal" and 2002's "Spend The Night" - and possibly earlier releases.

Without a doubt, The Donnas have arrived in a major way. And while mainstream radio is often slow to play acts that aren't as overly produced as Ashlee Simpson and Destiny's Child, The Donnas are earning new fans each day by playing their own instruments and performing songs they wrote.

Fans will get a chance to see the real deal when The Donnas open for Maroon 5 on April 6, 7 and 8 at Radio City Music Hall.

"We worked really hard on the songs on this record ('Gold Medal') and we really wanted to make the songs really good," drummer Torry Castellano said in a March 24 interview from West Palm Beach, Fla. "Just being able to record the record and having it come out the way it did was a success in our eyes.

"It is a struggle for us to get played on rock radio and pop radio - especially rock radio right now," she added. "They just don't like to play girls and that's very frustrating. But that's why we are doing it. You know, it's a battle. But I feel that there should be more girl rock bands in the mainstream and more rock bands (in general) in the mainstream nowadays. So you've just gotta keep trying."

The "Gold Medal" LP includes a number of catchy and musically sound tracks, including the single "Fall Behind Me." These days, Castellano especially likes playing the song "Revolver," which the band performs every other night on tour.

"And then also 'I Don't Want To Know (If You Don't Want Me)' - I really love that one too," she said. "I think it's really fun. I love playing the toms at the beginning and I think it sounds really good. It has a lot of different parts and stuff, so when we get it tight, it's really exciting! When it's on, it's good. When it's not, you feel a little bit like, 'Aw, (damn).' But I think we've been doing pretty well."

Born Jan. 8, 1979, Castellano grew up in Palo Alto, Calif. Her mother is a therapist, while her stepfather works in the computer field. Her father works for nonprofit organizations.

Along with singer Brett Anderson, bassist Maya Ford and guitarist Allison Robertson, Castellano formed the band Ragady Anne while she was in the eighth grade. The band released an EP locally before changing its name to the Electrocutes and later forming alter-egos as The Donnas. Members went under the names Donna A. (Anderson), Donna C. (Castellano), Donna F. (Ford) and Donna R. (Robertson).

Incorporating some of these influences into their music over time, The Donnas began releasing 7-inches that included "High School Yum Yum," "Let's Go Mano!" and "Da Doo Ron Ron." Sometimes early albums had photos of The Donnas wearing clothing and sporting hairdos that are far different from their current look.

"I don't think that we've changed like, 'Oh, my God, all of a sudden now we're this way when we weren't before,'" Castellano said. "But we have grown up. We've been doing this for almost 12 years, so there's definitely pictures of me when I'm like 16 years old that I hope I don't look the same as I did then! And I'm glad that I pluck my eyebrows now or something!

"We've tried things out," she added. "We've worn some outfits that maybe we wish we hadn't. But the fact is, we've always been in charge. We would feel a lot worse right now if we had let someone create an image for us and it wasn't us. We've always been in charge of how we've looked and what we've done. We've had to say no to a lot of stuff."

Castellano planned to study acting at New York University's Tisch School of the Arts. But that all changed when The Donnas had a chance to release their next album, "American Teenage Rock 'n' Roll Machine," on Lookout Records - the label that released Green Day's first two albums in the early '90s.

"It was very exciting because Lookout was a really big deal where we're from and all over the world," said Castellano, who was a fan of The PeeChees, a band that included Lookout Records owners Molly Neuman and Chris Appelgren.

"When we got on there, everyone was so nice," she added. "We formed a lot of friendships and it was really cool. They were very supportive. You'd just make your record and they'd put it out and they worked really hard and we had a lot of success and it was very exciting. Just to have a record (widely available) was amazing."

After two more albums on Lookout, The Donnas signed with Atlantic prior to the release of 2002's "Spend The Night" LP. The album included the No. 17 Modern Rock hit "Take It Off," with a video played on MTV. The Donnas appeared on "The View" and played on the mainstage at 2003's Lollapalooza.

During rehearsals for the summer festival, Castellano was in pain. Eventually diagnosed with deQuervain's Tendonitis, she took Cortisone shots to get through the tour. The eventually had surgery and had to learn a new way of playing the drums.

"We're all pretty much self-taught and I think that's cool," Castellano said. "I hope that people go out there and just pick up instruments. But when you are playing 13 months straight - the wrong way - it can get kind of crazy. I was just holding the sticks in a really wrong way. They called it the grip of death because I was holding them so tight and not releasing at all. So all of the tension would just go from the drum head to the sticks to my arms and my wrists.

"I had the surgery and it was successful, but after that I really had to work with this guy, Chuck Brown - who's worked with a lot of drummers that have had problems - so I wouldn't hurt myself again," she added. "Now, I hold the sticks differently and I have a different setup of my drums and I hit the drums differently. The way the stick hits the drums is completely different, kind of letting the stick do the work. So that's really been awesome. Even though it was really difficult, I have learned so much from it and I'm a more fluid drummer now. I really like that."

Shows begin at 8 p.m. The venue is at 1260 Sixth Ave. Tickets are $45 and $35. Call Ticketmaster at (212) 307-7171.